Tortellini Pollo Pesto
This is my favourite dish, Tortellini with Chicken and Bacon in a rich creamy pesto sauce. It is very filling and I love serving it with a crispy garlic bread for dipping into the sauce.
This is my favourite dish, Tortellini with Chicken and Bacon in a rich creamy pesto sauce. It is very filling and I love serving it with a crispy garlic bread for dipping into the sauce.
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1 tablespoon oil
- optional
- 300 grams tortellini
- 400 grams chicken thigh fillets skinless, diced into thumbnail sized pieces
- 75 grams bacon diced
- 500 ml cream
- 3 cloves garlic diced finely
- 2 tablespoons basil pesto see notes
- 6 sundried tomatoes halved and sliced into thin strips
- 1/2 avocado sliced thinly
- Carbohydrate 45.9406458385999 g
- Cholesterol 206.644715928306 mg
- Fat 62.9180451002535 g
- Fiber 3.77547493476936 g
- Protein 37.1617740614139 g
- Saturated Fat 23.9027243594632 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (371g)
- Sodium 683.258782381598 mg
- Sugar 42.1651709038305 g
- Trans Fat 7.19389178257367 g
- Calories 894 calories
Step-by-step
- Add sufficient water to a pot to cook the Tortellini and place on the stove to bring it to the boil.
- While water is heating, heat oil in a large deep frypan and add diced chicken. Fry for about 2 minutes and add diced bacon and garlic. Fry for a further 2 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Add white wine, reduce heat and allow to simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat until Tortellini has been cooked.
- Add tortellini to boiling water and cook for the required time on the package (approx 7 minutes).
- Add cream and pesto to frypan (and sundried tomatoes and avocado if using) and return to a simmer on a low heat stirring regularly.
- Drained tortellini well, add to frypan and combine with sauce.
- Bring sauce to a medium simmer for a few minutes to allow to the sauce reduce a little. Sauce will thicken only slightly.
- Serve hot in bowls with plenty of sauce for dipping your garlic bread into and garnish with pine nuts.
Standard carbonara relies entirely on the starch of pasta water and rendered pork fat to create an emulsion, whereas cream-based pasta sauces demand strict temperature control to avoid curdling. Introducing dairy directly into a pan that is too hot causes the milk solids to separate instantly, resulting in a grainy texture rather than a smooth coating. Simmering the diced chicken thigh and bacon, then degassing the pan with dry white wine at a moderate temperature creates the ideal thermal foundation before the cream goes in. Chicken thigh fillets diced into thumbnail-sized pieces require precisely two minutes of initial searing to develop surface proteins without drying out the interior. Pouring in five hundred milliliters of heavy cream alongside basil pesto requires maintaining a low simmer so the fat molecules remain suspended without breaking. Overheating the cream destroys its mouthfeel, leaving a greasy film instead of a velvety sauce that clings to the pasta. Combining the drained tortellini directly into the warm frypan allows the starch on the exterior of the pasta to integrate with the reduced dairy mixture. Toasting two tablespoons of pine nuts separately for garnish provides a contrasting crunch against the soft textures of avocado and sundried tomatoes.
